The first mills were either of the mortar and pestle type. The grain was place in a large saucer-shaped stone and a smaller rounded stone was used to crush it.
Or the saddlestone or metate which held the grain in a wide, shallow concavity in a flat or slanted stone where it was rubbed with a more or less cylindrical stone.
These primitive implements were followed by the quern, well known from early dynastic Egypt inward and consisting of a circular upper stone turned by hand power to animal power on a stationary lower stone.
Sometimes between 6000 and 5000 BC breads were made form wheat flours in both Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Romans adopted many of the milling and baking practices from Egypt. It appears that the Romans were the first people to develop a large mill that could be driven by a horse or a donkey.
Gristmills, such as the one at Jamestown in 1621, ground corn and wheat for meal and flour helping to feed the colonist and making the millers key local figures.
New York City became the first commercial center for wheat milling. Exporting wheat flour appears to have begun in the 1648s and the need for some form of inspection to ensure and maintain a good reputation was recognized by 1674.
History of wheat flour milling
